Series: What the church must address

A church that doesn’t adjust to changes in the outside world and which simply retreats into a smaller and smaller world, has failed to be the church. A faithful church will seek the fresh inspiration of the Holy Spirit to find ways to be missional in today’s public sphere. More

Are your parishioners looking out church windows anticipating what they’ll do out there? Or are they looking out in relief that they are comfortably ensconced in a safe haven? Have they got the ‘fire in the belly’ that the ancient church had? More

How did the evangelical church end up with such a bad reputation among Canadians when we do so much good for Canada? Looking back over the last forty years, mostly through the lens of the gay rights debate, it’s evident that we shot ourselves in the foot again and again and again. More

We live in a litigious society that is polarized around issues of morality and religion and where people are ready and willing to use the coercive power of the state to enforce their positions on others. While acknowledging the importance of responding to the legal and political challenges of our day, which require us to be present in the institutions of the state, we must show the world that another way of resolving differences and conflict is possible. More

The evangelical and LGBT communities have lived separately for hundreds of years, each regarding the other as truly ‘other’, a group defined by not being ‘us’. Theologically, there is no reason that this should be so. Is separation and otherness God’s heart for our two communities? More

Given all the vigorous debates over the last forty years about divisive social issues, the general public has repeatedly heard words of warning, disapproval, and dissent from us. I’m sure they know what we stand against, but I wonder if they know what we stand for. More